Telephone service providers typically charge either the caller or a called party for any calls made on the service provider's network. If the caller does not have an established account with the service provider, he or she may be able to pay for the call using a prepaid account or credit card. When the caller does not have a service provider account, a prepaid account, or a credit card, then the caller is usually not allowed to make a call. Any call that is initiated but not completed is lost revenue to the service provider.
This situation may arise in a law enforcement context when an arrestee, prisoner, or other detainee, who is being held in a holding cell, jail, prison or other law enforcement facility, does not have a trustee account, calling account, prepaid account or other means by which to pay for telephone calls. The detainee is then unable to initiate calls, but usually desires to make telephone calls. This results in lost revenue for the law enforcement facility. Depending upon the nature of the law enforcement facility, the detainee may be offered free calls. For example, a recent arrestee may be able to make free telephone calls to try to secure legal representation or bail. These free calls also represent lost revenue to the law enforcement facility and or telecommunication vendor.